Referee Shortage Too?
- Thread starter HALL85
- Start date
I coach youth sports most seasons. Young ones - below 10 years old. Not those crazy travel teams they have for that age, but the stuff we grew up with. Most of the participants are great, but about 10-20% are nuts, and they get all the attention. My parents don’t say negative stuff to anyone, including refs, because I tell them before the year that I will throw their a$$ off the sideline/stands if they do. But we see or hear about stuff in my town and elsewhere all the time. I can see why they having enough refs is an issue.
I used to coach community athletics when our kids were young…mostly soccer. That was 20-25 years ago and it was only a handful of parents while I did it. But it was a small town that had mostly reasonable residents too.
Coaches are usually volunteers, unless your kid plays for one of those club/travel/select teams, where some are paid (it is usually their living). I'm probably in the median age if not younger than most of this board, and was a 3-sport HS (1 sport college) athlete myself, and didn't do any of that stuff until I was 15 or so. Now it starts younger than it should, and some coaches get fed up volunteering for the town leagues because of overbearing, unrealistic parents who desperately want their kid to succeed at the desired sport at a young age. I've found most of the bad actors didn't play at any high level of any kind and haven't been through the recruiting process (like me). Or played with kids who were high-level college athletes or even professionals in some cases, like I did. They just don't get it, and many never will. I've been very fortunate that the teams I've coached for my kids tend to be populated with people we know who are normal, and so I haven't been run-off yet. I enjoy it. But I have many friends who step away and stop volunteering before their kids are into middle school, if not by 3rd or 4th grade. And it is the same lot of us coaching and volunteering every season.
Refs are volunteers in some cases but many are paid; at younger levels, soccer for example, they are basically middle school/HS kids looking to earn some real world $ and learn how to hold a job (which is fantastic). At older levels, you tend to have others who do it on the side for extra $ or who are retired or working less by choice but want to keep busy and like the sport -- again, fantastic, because as a society we want people to hustle and work. But the pay isn't that substantial, and so I don't blame many for walking away when they have to deal with the psycho-parent nonsense
Refs are volunteers in some cases but many are paid; at younger levels, soccer for example, they are basically middle school/HS kids looking to earn some real world $ and learn how to hold a job (which is fantastic). At older levels, you tend to have others who do it on the side for extra $ or who are retired or working less by choice but want to keep busy and like the sport -- again, fantastic, because as a society we want people to hustle and work. But the pay isn't that substantial, and so I don't blame many for walking away when they have to deal with the psycho-parent nonsense
I coached for years, every kid is going to be a star before HS starts. I use to give an opening speech letting parents know the facts and percentages of kids who play HS, college or semi pro. Times have changed in the last ten years since I coached. I wouldn’t want anything to do with coaching in today’s world.
